Loving.Every.Moment

Hyland Family Christmas

Bentley opening up his first Christmas Present!

The Hyland Family!  Thanks for coming up and celebrating Christmas and meeting Adlee ;)

On Saturday we had our Hyland family Christmas. With Adlee being so new and a bit jaundice we did not want to travel anywhere so the family came to us.  It was a busy day (especially for a new mom) but Uncle Rob and Uncle Derrek got to meet her.  It was really special as Derrek was home from California and was flying to Europe on Sunday, so it looks like Adlee was thinking ahead so she could meet him!  We had lots of fun and we were all given the gift of plane tickets to California in June to see Uncle Derrek.  The whole family will be going, and we are SO SO SO excited for this trip!

First Doctor's Appointment

We made it to our first doctor's appointment today!  We were so happy to here that she was doing much better and had gained weight!  We were nervous because her bilirubon score was somewhat high on Friday, and she had lost four more ounces since we left the hospital, weighing in at 5 lbs 9 oz.  We were told to feed her every two hours, and I needed to pump after each feeding and give her any excess milk that I had.  This made me a very, very tired Mama.  It seemed to have worked though.  Her bilirubon score was down, she had gained 6 oz, and her coloring was much better.  Wow, what a relief to know she is doing okay!  The worry I had over the weekend was starting to make me a little afraid of all this fear I will probably be feeling the rest of my life.  So glad this little pumpkin is doing better.  We have another doctor's appointment on Friday and our goal is to get her to her birth weight of 6 lbs 3 oz.

Introducing Adlee Ann Hicks

I know...a little frightening here, but I still think she is the sweetest thing I have ever seen!

Dr. Johnson checking her out.  Best doctor ever!!

Daddy gets to hold her for the first time.

Grandpa Hyland and his first grandaughter.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Carey came to see her!

Uncle Steve

Kasey, Justin, and little Bentley!

Daddy giving Adlee her first bottle.

Uncle Derrek.  He could not believe how little she was!

Uncle Rob

Danny's godparents Betty and Mel came up to meet little Adlee.

Dan's Grandpa Les

We thought we would try to get a family picture in!

Loving every moment with this little girl.

Grandma and Grandpa Hyland

Well....she is finally here!  She made her debut quite easy on her Mama!  After having a few days of mild cramps, on Monday night I took a bath and went to bed.  About 9:45pm that night the cramping became a little more severe.  After seeing the doctor that day, she said if there was any difference in my pain to go in right away.  We made it to Sanford at about 10:20pm and were finally admitted by 11:00pm.  By this time the contractions were getting pretty severe and were about 4 minutes apart.  I asked for the epidural right away!  I'm glad I didn't have my mind set on having a natural birth.  It would have never worked :)  At about 12:30am the epidural was finally given to me.  At this point the contractions were about 1-2 minutes apart and it was getting pretty tough to recover after each one.  I give credit to anybody who has a child.  It really is a pain like no other.  The nurse said she would wait to check how far I was dialated until after the epidural (a lucky thing).  After it kicked in, the nurse said I was dialated to 10cm already!  Our doctor was called and I began pushing at about 1:25am.  Little Adlee Ann arrived at 1:39am.  Everything happened so FAST!  Dan and I could not believe that our little girl was finally here.  We never expected that she would come three weeks early.  We never expected that labor would go so smoothly.  We never expected we would feel as prepared as we did.....and we NEVER expected the love that we felt when we first saw her.  It was amazing and we now know why parents can say it is a feeling that you can not describe.  Since Adlee's debut we have been busy with lots of visitors.  Here are a few pictures from her first five days of life :)

Thanksgiving

What an amazing weekend.  We were able to see my little brother Derrek (who flew home from California) and the rest of the family was all there!  Mom was in her glory, and I got lots of quality time with Bentley in too :)

Growing and Growing and Growing

A little look through time.........

8 Weeks.......wow......Probably never again :)

12 weeks!

17 Weeks!

20  Weeks!

24 Weeks!

26 Weeks!

33 Weeks!

34 Weeks!

Almsot 36 Weeks!  Woaaaa.......I can't imagine getting any bigger!

What a Weekend! Warning....bare belly below!

So....the best weekend ever!  My uncle Tony brought his ultrasound machine out so we could get a look at this little lady again before she is born.  Dan and I were so excited!  She was not cooperating very well...so it was hard to get a good look at her face, but we got to see her move all over, open and close her mouth, suck her thumb, and I could go on and on and on.  It was so much fun.  She has gotten so big, and we could only see parts of her on the screen.  She weighed about four pounds now and everything seemed so healthy on this little one.  We are so excited for her arrival in six short weeks! (I'm hoping...)

Waiting patiently to see this little girl!

Tony let Dan give it a try.  He did pretty good considering he had no idea what he was doing!

Then Grandpa Hyland had to get in and see what was happening.  Don't worry, Grandma Hyland was there too (she started crying when she saw the little babe) but was snapping the pictures.

Thumbs up Mom and Dad.....I get to meet you soon!

The Nursery

Wow....this room has been quite a work in progress.  So far we have the walls painted, crib up and one piece of furniture!  I need to organize a bunch, and put some stuff up on the walls!  Only 7 weeks left, I better get going...
I still need to get blinds, a rocker, more baskets, make her decoration for behind her crib, hang up the things we have bought for behind her changing table, and Dan needs to make shelves.  We'll get it done right?

So it starts out like this.  We finally got Dan's office furniture moved out and could start painting!

Here is the closet view.  We had to move that huge safe in there as it is over 1,000 pounds and I just can't justify trying to get it moved down into the basement.  Especially when we plan on moving soon ;)  

Here is another look with the walls painted, and all of her goodies!

Another look with the gray and yellow both showing.

So...now we have the crib set up and a dresser/changing table, but I need to ORGANIZE and straighten up!  Next weekend I am actually home maybe :)

Need 6 more baskets.......

Her closet with that most adorable safe!

Baby Ramzey John

We have a new nephew!  Ramzey John was welcomed into the world on October 26th!  We love him to pieces already.  We headed home to Milbank this weekend to meet the little one.  We got lots of snuggling time in and also took his two brothers to the park to play and a few other stops to give mom and dad some alone time with their new bundle of joy.  It was a great day!

Loving every moment with this little turkey!

Trying to get some practice in....

Having fun at the park!

Then we met up with Grandpa John and fed the chickens at the farm.

Finally.....they could put on our costumes for us!  Luckily we brought some candy so they could practice trick-or-treating with us!